Hachinohe Thermal Power Station

Hachinohe Thermal Power Station (八戸火力発電所) is a liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fired thermal power station operated by Tohoku Electric in the city of Hachinohe, Aomori, Japan. The facility is located on the Pacific coast.

History
At the time Tohoku Electric was founded, all of its power generation facilities were hydroelectric power plants, mostly concentrated along the Agano River basin in Fukushima Prefecture. As a result, northeastern Japan faced chronic power shortages. As the Hachinohe area was selected as a center for heavy industry by the Japanese government, industrial power consumption was expected to increase, and Tohoku Electric started construction on its first thermal power plant in September 1956. The plant was completed in June 1958. A total of four units were completed. Units 1 and 2 were abolished in 1982 and Unit 4 in 2006, due to aging equipment and a decline in operating rates.

After the 2011 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Unit 5 was rushed into service to make up for a shortfall in electrical generating capacity. Unit 5 was subsequently upgraded to an advanced combined cycle plant by installing an additional waste heat recovery boiler, steam turbine, and generator. At that time, it was also converted from diesel fuel to LNG. The upgraded plant came back on line on August 7, 2014 and its conversion to LNG was completed by July 1, 2015.

On August 7, 2014, the combined cycle of Unit 5 was completed and commercial operation began [4]. Diesel fuel was initially used as fuel, but on November 28, 2012, JX Nippon Oil & Energy signed a supply contract for natural gas, and it was announced that it would be supplied from the company's Hachinohe LNG terminal [5]. The switch to natural gas was implemented on July 1, 2015, and improved power generation capacity and thermal efficiency [6].

Unit 3 was abolished on July 1, 2016 due to aging equipment.

The 1.5 MW Hachinohe Solar Power Plant was built on the site of the scrapped thermal power units and started operation on December 20, 2011